Just carry On... A childhood story

beginnings (40)in #story • 7 years ago (edited)

The Mountain Climber

The story is about a mountain climber, who always wanted to climb the highest mountain, Mount Everest. He prepared for years and began his adventure. He decided to climb the mountain alone.
The night fell heavy in the heights of the mountain and the man could not see anything. All was black. Zero visibility due to heavy fog, and the moon and the stars were covered by the clouds.
As he was climbing only a few feet away from the top of the mountain, he slipped and fell off into the air, falling at great speed. The climber could see nothing as he went down; he felt nothing but the terrible sensation of being sucked down by gravity. He kept falling, and in those moments of great fear, all the good and the bad episodes of his life flashed through his mind.
He was thinking about how close death was getting, when all of the sudden he felt the rope tied to his waist pull him very hard. His body was hanging in mid-air. Only the rope was holding him, and at that moment of stillness, he had no other choice but to scream: "Help me, God!"
All of the sudden, a deep voice coming from the sky answered:

"WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?"
"Save me, God!" the climber replied.
"DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE I CAN SAVE YOU?"
Though the climber was agnostic, he said "Of course, I believe you can save me."
"THEN, CUT THE ROPE."
This was baffling, he thought, “But! But, can you assure with absolute certainly that it won’t kill me? Why should I believe that you are a God and not Satan?”
There was no reply from the voice. After this epoch of silence; the man decided to hold onto the rope with all his strength.

Next morning, the rescue team found the climber, frozen to death, his body hanging from the rope around his waist...
Only ten feet away from the ground!

Lessons learned :

As a child I learned that there is a higher power above me, whom the world calls God and he(she/it) is there to help me if I truly ask for refuge. I was a theist most of my life, then after getting into STEM, i was slowly turning into an atheist. But, somehow, the transfiguration didn’t complete and as of now, I am a Theophile.
As an adult, it means that one must NEVER give up on their life, no matter how tough the situation is, how difficult it is to get along with the perpetual mood of dejection. Whether you’re having an existential crisis or suffering severe depression. You MUST NOT GIVE UP ON LIFE. Things will get better with time, you must act slowly and steadily and work out the possible solutions without losing hope.

There is this story which I remember from childhood, from a weekend special called Bal-kesari along with Punjab-kesari.

random complimentary wisdom accompanied with music.